Friday, 9 December 2016

The product I think was highly successful. I created the Micro:bit resource in order to demonstrate the final product to the teachers today. As a whole our lead up to this was good to. The final brief for the students microbit monster was strong, clean and concise. Again it was a very open resource so it was up to the teachers to present this as they wish - whether they had open some of the other tutorials or had these hidden away, or whether they had no help at all (or worked in pairs!). We had a clear guideline - you must include x, y, z and to make this better include even more!
It was accessible for students and teachers alike and as a whole I believe rounded up all the individual sessions nicely. The worksheet that went with this could have been slightly improved upon but this was only a potential sheet - again it was up to the teachers as to whether they wanted to use this.
The overall homework task worked nicely too - it connected with the brief and joint all the sessions together. We provided a small example of what could be accomplished by the end of the sessions for this too.

I felt my Accelerometer resource was fairly strong. I had a brief explanation as to what the accelerometer did, followed by what the Magic 8 ball is and a fun website that runs on the same concept as the magic 8 ball.
By using step by step instructions with explanations as to why they are selecting x tab, and why you have to create numbers for the magic 8 ball to relate to the phrases provided, I felt the resource was strong - a teacher or student who have never coded before could easily try to use the resource and most likely succeed. Teachers have a better understanding of their pupils abilities, and I'd rather make the resource as detailed as possible to they can takeaway ideas and steps, than make it 'underdone' as some teachers may not think the resource is open enough or accessible enough for their pupils to understand.

By keeping the resource itself as open as possible it enables teachers to create lots of ways of making the lesson their own. For example I gave suggestions as to how the work could be done in pairs or in teams or even individually. I also gave suggestions as to how the teacher could compare the 8 ball micro:bit to a board game which meant that the children using the resource might find it more relatable.

We were originally going to use Mix and not Sway to create the resource - we chose to switch as we liked that sway was different to the standard PowerPoint set up - some children might prefer this and find it more engaging. Another pro of using Sway for us was that it is very easy to duplicate - we shared our resources with Aidan via duplicating our original and allowing him to edit them - all online which is great as if it you loose a memory stick or something that holds your normal files, it is still available online.

One of the great features about Sway is that is fairly basic - it hasn't got too many additional bells and whistles. This means that pupils will be less distracted and hopefully remain more on tasks - it remains clear and concise. However there are a wide range of things that we have still used to make the resources more fun and engaging - such as Kahoot and Magic 8 ball.

Thursday, 8 December 2016

As opposed to creating a ready to use resource that a teacher could simply give to the children then sit back, I decided to meet them in the middle. Whilst I did create a resource that teachers can give to their students they will have to do some editing first- or simply take inspiration from this resource.
The teachers notes provide hints and tips on how to edit the resource, so that it will be best suited to their class - and how to help students in terms of differentiation and learning styles.
As to best work for most learners I created lots of visual features. In ICT it can be difficult to create a very kinaesthetic learning experience, but the micro:bit can help this. All the lessons when pieced together can appeal to the kinaesthetic learner - moving around the class to use the compass, and shaking the accelerometer - finally resulting in the mini monster. The teacher could also create an example of the function they are creating that day - great for kinaesthetic learners, so they can examine and get an idea of the functions. Visual learners may do best, purely because in terms of accessibility for all, images can be the best tools. The mix of demonstrations and text based learning works well for the resource, and for many types of learners.
Auditory learners may not benefit as much from the resource as it is, but when teachers use the resource effectively, speaking some things out and altering the resource in some ways - e.g. creating a screen capture video, using their voice as well as the drag and drop functions in order to appeal to all learners.

For those in the class may have any special learning needs or disabilities, the teacher does know best. The teachers notes give a brief idea as to how the sessions can be broken up, and put into teams or broken down into individual work pieces. They also provide ideas on how they can be presented (e.g. comparing the 8 ball accelerometer to a board game), making it more accessible for all learners.

I looked to Naace's ICT KS3 Framework for further inspiration on our project. It is described below:

The Naace ICT Framework provides an audit and planning tool to enable schools to deliver a broad and balanced ICT curriculum and provide a clear progression from EYFS to Key Stage 3. It provides a firm basis for KS4 studies. Whilst some suggestions are given about fleshing out the framework and about approaches to teaching and learning, there is sufficient flexibility and choice for a school to develop and personalise the curriculum so that it best meets the needs of their learners within their local context.

This framework I feel really relates to the clients brief - and is most related to the Micro:bit!
The 3 core foundations of the framework are seen below

I felt the Micro:bit best linked to all of these, linking well to the Governments KS3 curriculum but also extending on this in a positive way.

Friday, 11 November 2016

We submitted our Project briefing back to Mr. Calvert at Trinity School. Within this we stated some brief info about the project, the goals, timeline, delivery of the lessons, a guide as to what each of the sessions will contain, how the results will be anlased and a brief evaluation. We emailed with the following:

"Hi Aidan,

I am one of the students that visited with Jamie from Nottingham Trent University. Myself and the team I am working with have written a project brief from the notes I took during our meeting on the 14th of October.

I have attached the brief, if you could have a look and see if this is what you were looking for, any feed back would be greatly appreciated.

As soon as I have confirmation from you that the brief is correct or you have provided any suggestions or changes you would like to be made, I will inform the team and we will have a first draft of the lesson plans ready for you next Friday (18th November 2016).

Sincerely

Chris"

We recieved a positive reply and are ready to start full work on the project!